Diane Kruger: Ending her relationship with Joshua Jackson was 'liberating'

After ending their decade-long relationship in 2016, Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson released a brief statement on their separation and future as friends. Now more than a year later, Kruger shared some candid details in an interview with Vulture Magazine.

Discussing how grief led the German-actor to her bravest performance yet, the 41-year-old revealed that the demise of their relationship "was a long time coming," and occurred after she the passing of her grandmother, the first immediate family member she'd ever lost.

Actress Diane Kruger attends the premiere of "In the Fade" at the Museum of Modern Art on Monday, Dec. 4, 2017, in New York. Photo: Evan Agostini

"We broke up many months before we said we were broken up, so by the time I made that decision it didn't feel like it was so urgent anymore," the star said after revealing seeing both friend grandfather and mother grieving were "difficult blows."

"You don't break up overnight in 10 years, you know what I mean?"

For Kruger, the experience was sad and inevitable rather than anxiety-inducing. In fact the process in the end felt somewhat liberating.

"I wasn't like an urgent, 'Oh my god, I can't sleep at night', thing. Actually, it felt liberating," she said.

"I didn't have to worry about that anymore, so I could immerse myself 100 per cent into something else. I felt like I did nothing else but that. Nobody came to visit me, I didn't have to worry about anything else but this," referring to her latest project In The Fade.

The German-language film follows the story of a woman whose Turkish husband and son are killed in a neo-Nazi terrorist attack, one that Kruger spent her days intensely researching and immersing herself in the story. She won best actress for the role at the Cannes Film festival last May.

During all the grief and the process of filming, Kruger said, "I felt like I was drowning."

But asked if a support system was missed during the filming she replied, "I didn't want one. It's a distraction."

Jackson publicly congratulated Kruger on Instagram after her Cannes win. The Dawson's Creek alumni wrote, "having witnessed the integrity and dedication that you bring every job, I'm over the moon to see you getting the recognition you deserve. Only question is what took em' so long."

Kruger is now dating The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus, with the couple going public with their romance last March.

"Coming out of it was a long process that mostly involved my family because we were healing and grieving the loss of my stepdad together," she said about wrapping up filming, also revealing she could not pick up another script for five months. "And I was lucky to have my friends and my partner there to just be present and walk that walk with me to the light."